Field of the Invention: Dispensers for dispensing sheets from a roll of perforated or non-perforated paper towels are generally intended for operation using both hands. One handed operation is notoriously clumsy and unreliable. Unfortunately, when the need for a paper towel arises, two hands are not always available for the task. Just about anyone in a modern kitchen has attempted to pull paper towels from a dispenser with one hand, only to struggle with the apparatus to get a sheet to tear properly in the first instance, and to prevent free spooling of the roll and thus waste in the second. There remains an unfulfilled need for a paper towel dispenser capable of reliable one-handed operation in which a user can select and remove one or more sheets of one or more paper towels (or a length of paper of any desired length) while operating the dispenser with only one hand. The inventive apparatus provides the solution for that long felt and unfulfilled need.